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The fire next time
Eighty years ago today, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. More than most events in recent history, this must be remembered. One of the things that’s always said about terrible events is “it must never happen again.” But of course this did happen again, just three days later when the US dropped Continue reading
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Symiliptic report Aigust 4
The scum rely, or sometimes seem to, on the real world people. This is because the scum exist, as do the rest of us, in the real world. But the scum do not, of course, acknowledge very much of the real world. If it were worth our time and attention, we might investigate whether it’s Continue reading
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The symiliptic report Aigust 3
The back yard was active today, so I had to leave Cypher in the house where it was safe. I ventured out with a jug of tea and some earthenware cups for whoever (or whatever) might be waiting. It’s always a good idea to bring some sort of offering when the chimes are tinkling on Continue reading
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Zero-based reporting
Here’s an idea. The bulk of “news reporting” in the US these days is telling you what the orange baby just said. Without any historical context to how often it has repeated the same exact thing with different details. Here’s one list, and this one is only focused on “the biggest scandal.” Continue reading
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The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions
“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” – Abraham Lincoln Lincoln’s words come from the Lyceum Address, more formally titledThe Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions:Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, IllinoisJanuary 27, Continue reading
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You might know these guys
How quickly the veneer of the US being anything special at all fades. Now that we have secret police, we seem to have no problem recruiting sufficient thugs who are happy to mask up and anonymously disappear anybody without any of that bothersome “due process” stuff. And many of the disappeared are shipped to our Continue reading
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It figures
There is a competition called the International Math Olympiad (IMO). It’s an international competition for high school students. It consists of six questions that competitors have to answer within a time limit. There are only six questions, but these are extremely difficult questions, of course. At least at the level of excellent, but pre-university mathematicians. Continue reading
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Blaming
Politics in the US seems to be more about nonsensical blaming than it used to be. I think it’s because once they’re elected, the greedheads and powerheads just assume that the rest of us are stupid, and will just accept whatever tripe comes out of their mouths. This may be at least partly due to Continue reading
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Back to the future
I was recently struggling with Yet Another bloated, unwieldy commercial application when I suddenly remembered the Unix “philosophy.” It’s been codified lots of times, but maybe most succinctly by Peter Salus: – Write programs that do one thing and do it well. – Write programs to work together. – Write programs to handle text streams, Continue reading
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And then…
The orange baby is coming to the end of its life. Maybe not immediately, but it’s an elderly white male that reportedly makes bad diet and exercise choices, and although it’s secretive, it’s in the public eye enough for people to spot warning signs. It has repeatedly dangled the possibility of “a third term,” but Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity.
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peterharbeson@me.com